Shibley gives update from New Mexico UAS conference

Friday

Dec 14, 2012 at 12:30 PM

Privacy concerns holding back selection process but it could still come in 2013

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Interim Director China Lake Alliance Eileen Shibley gave a brief update on the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Portal at Indian Wells Valley Economic Development Corporation meeting at the Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.She reported on information based at an annual UAS TAAC conference she attended in Albuquerque, N.M. last week that Federal Aviation Administration brass attended as well, including the person who will decide on the six sites that will host UAS programs.Shibley said that representatives from the competitors attended as well, which the FAA estimates to be between 30 and 40 states that will have some kind of proposal.Shibley said the biggest competition comes from North Dakota, Ohio, Florida, a combined effort from Maryland and Virginia and possibly Texas. Acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta had previously announced that any site selection was on indefinite hold. Huerta sent a letter to members of the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus that site selections would not be unveiled until a date to be determined based on privacy concerns.“We got some insight into the background and what might happen next,” Shibley said. Shibley said a lot of the background was tied to politics and was contingent on the elections. She said there were legitimate concerns regarding privacy, but for the most part some people failed to realize that it could be achieved from technology already available with manned aircraft.“Unmanned (systems) is not going to introduce any new element to that,” she said.But with ACLU involvement in addition to seven different bills addressing privacy issues being introduced to Congress this year, the White House instructed the FAA to hold off until after the election.Going forward, Shibley said that there were three or four lobbying groups working with Congress to keep the pressure going on the UAS portals and were likely meeting with some success.Shibley said her opinion of the reason was due to the business sector. After 60 years of development and testing in restricted airspace by the Department of Defense, things were changing.“The private sector now has many applications for unmanned systems, and they’re growing every day,” Shibley said. Those include border control, fire control and search and rescue, and a major interest in the agricultural sector alone.“They have no place to test these right now without going through this very arduous process with the FAA,” she said. She said that was was continuing the push for the FAA to name the six sites that would allow for testing.Shibley said that current speculation in the UAV community was that the FAA would still name the sights, possibly in 2013, and that the requirements document might be released right after the first of the year after it’s determined whether the nation will fall off the impending fiscal cliff.The requirements document wasn’t the key, Shibley said, saying it likely had no meat. The key would be knowing how to safely integrate UAVs.She said most competitors in the other states named already had their proposals written, and would just require fine-tuning to the requirements document before submitting.She highlighted points from a presentation by Jim WIlliams, who heads up the FAA’s department that will determine the selection of six testing sites.She said Williams had said the department has new direction but the federal Department of Transportation and the White House needed to sign off on it before the requirements document could be released.“He indicates that he thinks that is forthcoming in his presentation,” Shibley said. But that was the most Williams would release, she said.Shibley also pointed out that there was some strong debate between the FAA and Defense Department and the courts over privacy issues. The DoD’s point: that privacy issues were the domain of the Justice Department, not the FAA.Shibley pointed out that Williams had revealed the FAA had already put together the source selection panel.“What that tells me is that they really are serious about this and aren’t just kicking the can down the road indefinitely,” she said. “Williams said that it would still be six sites selected and that they would be selected within 2013.”Shibley said the new Board of Directors at the Inyokern Airport was still very active in pursuing interest in the UAV project.“I know there’s been a lot of scuttlebutt in the community and I just wanted to allay those fears,” she said. She said incoming director Steven Morgan had applauded the committee’s efforts and was completely supportive of it.She said some directors had some concern. She said Paul Valovich’s main concern was whether this would directly interfere with China Lake NAWS’ mission.Shibley had said those fears were allayed when she told Valovich that three people on the UAS committee were base employees cleared by the base’s legal department to speak on the base’s behalf regarding the UAS project and act as liasons.Shibley said that of the areas of business that likely wouldn’t be considered would be border patrol, as areas like North Dakota already had that well covered.The areas most likely considered would be agriculture, police and fire control, as well as delivery systems like FedEx.Shibley said that the five major categories for consideration that the Indian Wells Valley might rule out is building platforms.“We see our role in consort in role of the base and that it is system engineering and integration onto the platforms,” she said.